September 24 – 30, 2022

“Two weeks ago, on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, Steve Bannon surrendered himself to authorities. In the Solomon Islands, an election was delayed. In France, President Emmanuel Macron was embarrassed when people did not attend his unity conference. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a public administrator was suspected of killing a reporter who was investigating him over a hostile work environment.”

“It’s seven hours’ flying time from London to New York, but there is a huge chasm between the pageantry of a past empire on one side of the Atlantic and the 77th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the other. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong’s grim words belied the bright sunshine of her midweek news conference in the UN Plaza’s rose garden. ‘War in Europe,’ she said, ‘has cast a shadow over this meeting.’”

“The most significant failure of global leadership by governments in recent times is the failure to act decisively and as a matter of urgency on climate change. Surely we have moved beyond the ignorant and irresponsible mumbling of the climate deniers with mounting evidence from across the world of the effects of climate change. The unprecedented heatwave in Europe. The unprecedented drought in China. The megadrought in the United States. Greenland’s collapsing icecap. Near-famine in several parts of Africa.”